On 9th-10th July 2016, the G20 Trade Ministers Meeting was successfully held in Shanghai. Wang Yang, Vice-Premier of People's Republic of China, Gao Hucheng, Minister of Commerce, Yang Xiong, Mayor of Shanghai, together with other leaders, attended the meeting. Over 500 participants joined the event, including members of G20, World Trade Organisation (WTO), World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Conference on Trade And Development (UNCTAD) and other international organisations, as well as the representatives of the B20 Coalition (a Coalition which brings together leading independent business associations from the G20 countries).
A group of 30 SBC student volunteers were invited to help at the meeting due to their high level of English and experience in events’ voluntary works.
A volunteer recruitment programme was launched at SBC as soon as the SBC Youth League announced the task. All applicants were examined comprehensively with regards to their English level, emergency response capacity, sense of responsible leadership, resilience, political literacy and volunteer experience, etc. In the end, 30 students stood out from hundreds of applicants. Student volunteers were separated into 2 groups. The first group started from early June and was responsible for organising registration documents, discussing solutions for meetings and communicating with the delegations. The second group started from the 7th July, mostly serving as assistants of the liaison officers, in charge of the reception of foreign delegations and meetings liaison; others took responsibility for assisting the pick-up of delegations from the airport.
By participating in the volunteer service of the G20 Trade Ministers Meeting, the SBC students fully demonstrated a broad international perspective, fluent English skills and a high level of volunteerism and all-round quality. It was likewise a great opportunity and a great challenge for students to be involved in such a big international event and also to gain invaluable work experience.
Rob Davies, South African Trade Minister, Abdoulaye Fall, the Ambassador for Senegal, Chen Jiang, Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, Wang Lihua, representative of Office of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, thanked the SBC volunteers for their help, and spoke highly of their work. They all mentioned how impressed they were by the great performance of SBC students at the meeting. SBC is very proud of the students’ high level of willingness to undertake voluntary work and their professionalism in doing so, reflecting a practical application of the College’s overarching themes set out as an essential element of Vision 2025.
